Marshall surprises music lovers with a new smartphone; meet the exquisite London

Marshall is a brand you'd usually associate with musical equipment, be it guitars, amplifiers or even headphones, but the company has just stunned music fans with a new smartphone. Meet the London, a stylish new mobile phone by Marshall that aims to really turn up the volume with Android Lollipop.

The London is a rather strange product by Marshall, simply because on one side you're curious the company is planning to release said smartphone, but the phone itself actually looks exactly as you'd imagine a Marshall smartphone to be. The company has implemented a truly stylish look and feel, but they haven't cut corners when it comes to specifications.

On the front of the London you have a 4.7-inch 720p IPS display, 2-MP shooter, while on the rear you have an 8-MP main camera. Inside the phone is a Snapdragon 410 1.4GHz quad-core CPU, 16GB of internal storage (with microSD expansion), and a removable 2,500mAh battery.

Setting its smartphone offering apart, and since this is Marshall, the company has loaded the London with some custom music applications. This software can also activate the line-in functionality – that's right, this phone has not one headphone jack, but two. Also, who needs volume rockers? Marshall wants you to amp up the track with a scroll wheel.

There's also a special "M" button on the top of the London, which enables the user to access their music collection from wherever they may be. Finally, there are two speakers, because one is simply not enough. Then there's the design, which is unique in of itself.

The London will be priced at $499/£399 and will be made available for purchase this August, but you can place a pre-order now if you simply must have this phone.

I really like head-fi. Unfortunately most of the stuff on there is out of my price range. I've been thinking about picking up a pair of Yamaha eph-100's or the RHA M750's. Fairly good responses from those on there without breaking the bank.

everythign about this phone is great, and the nyou get to the price, and personally i fell for £399 you should get more than a Snapdragon 410, either a 615 (meh) or a Helio X10 from MediaTek, or heck, go crazy and put the Rockchip RK3288 in the new chromebooks, they seem to be doing great.

£400 seems right for everything about this phone, apart from that damn SoC